Mechcommander Gold defaults to 640×480 resolution with no way of changing it through the menu options. You can however increase the resolution manually through prefs.cfg which, when combined with increased zoom level, can give the game an HD effect:

Open prefs.cfg in a text editor. pref.cfg is located in the root directory of your MCX installation (e.g. C:\Program Files\MCX\prefs.cfg)

Set resolution=3 to change resolution to 1280×1024. On the line before “FITend” add the following (if you don’t have it already): l Resolution=3
Different numbers here represent the different available resolutions:
0 -> 640×480
1 -> 800×600
2 -> 1024×768
3 -> 1280×1024Note – This will only affect your in-game resolution. The menu resolution will remain unchanged!Note – Setting the resolution higher than what is supported by your monitor will cause the game to crash!I’ve included a screenshot of my own prefs.cfg file below as an example:

(Optional) Increase the in game zoom level. Now that you’re got a larger resolution you could optionally zoom in as you should have a much larger view area. To do this, while in a mission press ‘+‘ to get a zoomed in view. You can now use this view to play the game as the large resolution combined with the zoom will allow you to see roughly the same amount of mission area as you could before but with much more detail.

As a comparison I’ve taken screenshots of the default resolution and the highest resolution zoomed in. The visible mission area is almost the same but the level of detail in the second picture is much higher (the second picture is also much bigger than it appears from the preview, click through to see the full size):Enjoy some nicer graphs :)

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having trouble with Mechcommander Gold high resolution settings, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful! It would be very helpful if you could also include the contents of your prefs.cfg file.

This doesn’t work. I’ve tried various numbers, but 0-4 does nothing to my game. Maybe it’s due to my monitor size; I don’t know. It’s a 16 by 10. I guess I’ll have to play it with regular graphics. But the game doesn’t look bad running in full screen. It’s no worse than I remember.

I’m going to double check this tonight but it seems like you may have missed step #3 -> pressing ‘+‘ in game to increase the zoom level. Also keep in mind increasing the resolution through prefs.cfgdoes not change your menu resolution, only your in game resolution.

The zoomed level of MCG is at a higher resolution, but normally not really useful for playing the game as you can only see a small portion of the battlefield. That’s where increasing the in game resolution comes into play to increase the available view area, and ‘fake’ a high resolution version for the game.

Looking back this post is somewhat poorly written. I’ll update it and maybe add some comparison screenshots.

Also I don’t think the monitor aspect should affect changing the setting. I also have 16/10 monitor.

I changed the resolution and that is working how ever it will not let me zoom in. it says its been disabled. also I can not get the LAN options to work. Is there an update or other change I need to make?

I tried copy pasting the contents of your prefs.cfg into mine and it still greatly increased the resolution. Try switching between Resolution=3 and Resolution=1 to see if you notice any differences. Perhaps it’s a limitation of running on your iMac27 / Crossover?

Also yeah these settings should work for both Mechcommander Gold and Mechcommander. Make sure you haven’t accidentally change the prefs.cfg extension to be like prefs.cfg.txt or something.

That seems quite likely. If you can increase your notebook’s resolution, try that and then set Resolution=3 again. If you can’t you might be constrained to Resolution=2 :( . It should still be a considerable improvement over the default thought, so it’s worth doing!

Unfortunately i cant increase resolution on my notebook further so im stuck with resolution=2 but ill install mechcommander on my Desktop to see how it looks with resolution=3. Thanks again for the help. :)

Marduk

February 2, 2014 at 12:44 pm

Also can i ask how i can run this game in windowed mode as i can see it on your screenshots?

I’m so glad to hear it worked for you, and that you’re enjoying the higher resolution! I added the tip to zoom in simply because I didn’t know it existed (and that it was so crisp looking) until recently.

ok, i have problem with ISO. how to open MCX as image CD to be seen by program exe to start the game? cause isobuster ver.2.8 or 3.3 not see any file from it to solve. i know i do somethin wrong, but do not know what …

I figured it out!!!
None of the numbers worked for me. So I copied the “1” from the other lines, it’s actually not a “1” it seems. Look closer, it almost look like an i of some kind. Not sure what character it is, but if I use it, instead of a 1. It works.
Also, the resolution change works in the menu as well!! The menu is tiny! I mean, that isn’t ideal but it’s exciting this worked! I hope all this makes sense, if not please ask.

Guys this post was SOOOOO helpful! The MCX.exe’s out there to adjust the res are usually unstable!! in short Lower caps “L” not “1”, make read only, and select an option INSIDE your current resolution.

I know this is an old thread, but just wanted to say thanks. The screen for my old XPS died so instead of spending $150 to fix it I spent $125 for a 32″ LED monitor. Being able to change the resolution has been awesome, the graphics are amazing!